Stropper



Aug. 17, 1965 J. B. WAYMAN STROPPER Original Filed Aug. 19, 1959 IN V EN TOR. z/A MES B. LUA Y/YIA ,v.

A T TORNE Y.

United States Patent 3,200,670 STROPPER James B. Wayman, 8 Ashy St., Cincinnati 18, Ohio Continuation of abandoned application Ser. No. $34,709, Aug. 19, 1959. This application May 4, 1964, Ser. No. 365,857

1 Claim. (Cl. 76-892) This application is a continuation of my co-pending applicationSerial'No. 834,709, filed August 19, 1959, now abandoned. I

My invention relates to a knife stropper and particularly relates to a tool that will enable a blade to be stropped or have the sides of its edge smoothed.

Previous to my invention, knife sharpeners would only abrade metal or remove some of the blade. My stropper should lay the feathers or comb the hair of a dull blade. Professional knife users suggest both abrading and smoothing are advisable to prolong the life of a knife. Exclusive use of a stone or file that tears off metal must inevitably and unnecessarily shorten the life of a blade. However, if a stropper alone is used, it ultimately rounds the blade or makes the edge obtuse, and another abrading job is needed. Professional knife users such as meat cutters, delay time-consuming whetting as long as practicable and between whettings resort to frequent use of the stropping steel. This requires considerable skill and experience.

My invention will do for the unskilled knife user the same job that is done for the professional knife user by his use of a steel.

The principal object of my invention therefore is to provide a tool which will enable a knife blade to be stropped by a person unskilled in the stropping operation.

Another object of my invention is to provide a knife stropper which may be easily stored and easily used by persons such as housewives, and which is safe in its operation.

Other objects and objects relating to details of construction and economies of operation will definitely appear from the detailed description to follow.

In one instance, I have accomplished the object of my invention by the device and means set forth in the following specification.

My invention is clearly defined and pointed out in the appended claim. Structures useful in carrying out my invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a view showing my knife stropper mounted on the edge portion of a holder.

FIGURE 2 is a detailed, sectional view taken along the lines 22 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 shows a pair of stropping wheels employing the principles of my invention and through which the knife may be drawn to strop it.

FIGURE 4 shows the stropping wheels of FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 5 shows a stropper having the stropping elements so made and constructed that they are adapted to mesh.

FIGURE 6 is a planned view of the elements shown in FIGURE 5 and shows the rounded stropping element.

FIGURE 7 is a detailed, sectional view taken along the lines 7'7 of FIGURE 6.

In general, my invention provides a stropping element utilizing a pair of smooth, non-abrasive, convex stropping surfaces through which a knife is pulled, or using a pair of such stropping surfaces which are meshed and revolved about the edge portion of a knife stropper. A smooth stropping surface, as used throughout this application and the claim, designates a non-granular and non-abrasive surface which sharpens cutting edges by realigning blade edge particles rather than by removing them.

Referring now to FIGURE 1, there is shown a stropping tool having stropping elements 20 and 21 cut from a 6" outside diameter pipe which elements are mounted by means of a screw 22, and secured to a block 23. The stropping elements 20, 21 are angulated relative to each other and have smooth rounded stropping surfaces 24, spaced longitudinally along their length. These rounded portions 24 are adapted to mesh with rounded portions provided on a mate so that the rounded portion 24 of one element disappears behind its counterparton the other element when the elements are viewed on a line of vision through the V defined by the angulated elements. As the cutting instrument such as a knife is pressed downward into and drawn through the slot formed by the meshing of the splined elements, the cutting knife is 'stropped. InFIGURE 3 I show a pair of wheels such as 25 and 26 which are adapted to mesh with each other, and are mounted. on shafts 27 and 28' orremain a controllable distance from each other. The wheels 25 and 26 are provided with rounded segments 29, which are adapted to present a stropping surface to the edge of a cutting tool such as a knife 30.

In FIGURE 5 a pair of stropping elements 31 and 32 are secured by means of a bolt such as 33, to a holder 34, and are provided with splines 36 which mesh with splines on the other element. The splines 36 are smooth and rounded. A plurality of splines 36 are provided on each of the elements and define between them a V- shaped slot through which the cutting instrument is to pass when it is sharpened by the stropping action of the splines.

In my invention, therefore, I provide in one instance a pair of identical elements such as 20 and 21 which may be made of ceramic or of some metallic material as hard or harder than the cutting instrument to be stropped. These elements are separated from each other at their tops, and as they approach their lowermost edge, they gradually mesh by means of splines or ridges such as 24, which are formed thereon into each other so as to present ridges of such profile that the cutting instruments edge is smoothed as it is pressed downward into the slot created by the position of the identical elements.

In FIGURE 5, I provide a pair of circular elements which are made of ceramic or other metallic material as hard or harder than the cutting instrument to be stropped. 'These identical circular elements such as 31 and 32 diverge from each other near their peripherals to create a slot of any desired angle into which the edge of a cutting instrument is introduced, and which presents by reason of the splines on the circular elements, a profile which will smooth the sides of a cutting instruments edge when said cutting instrument is pressed into and drawn through said slot. This happens while the elements 31 and 32 are rotated by means of some suitable means on a common axis.

I provide in another species of my invention a pair of circular elements such as shown in FIGURE 3 at numbers 25 and 26, which elements are made of ceramic or other metallic material as hard or harder than the cutting instrument to be stropped, and which are mechanically rotated in opposite directions on a pair of spaced parallel axes and which form a slot which serves to smooth the sides of a cutting instrument when it is introduced into said slot.

It will be noted that each species of the generic invention, which has been heretofore described, has in common with the other species the fact that each includes at least a pair of opposed rounded smooth stropping surfaces which are angulated relative to each other so as to define a V-shaped slot therebetween. The surfaces are offset from each other or meshed so that one smooth stropping angulated surfaces.

surface disappears behind the other whenthe surfaces are viewed in a line of vision through the V defined by the This opposed and meshed relationship enables a knife edge inserted into and drawn through the V-shaped-slot to be sharpened to anrinfinitely shar edge. 4

While several diiferent embodiments or speciesfofmy generic invention havebeen disclosed in the drawings and described in the specification, those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains will readily comprehend still further modifications of the invention without departing from the spirit of the invention, and therefore, I do not intend to be limited except by the appended claim.

Having thus described, my invention, what -I claim' as new and useful and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is: A stropper for sharpening the cutting edge of a cutting instrument comprising, a pair of elements, said elements being rotatably mounted for contra-rotation about spaced parallel axes, each of said elements having at least one non-abrasive rounded smooth convex projecting surface of at least as great hardness as that of saidcutting edge, each of said elements being located opposite a similar element, said surfaces being meshed and angulated relative to each other with a section-of one of said surfaces at least partially disappearing behind its counterpart so as to define a V-shaped slot, said slot defining surfaces being located on said convex cross sections of said elements so as to present only rounded smooth surfaces to the cutting edge of a cutting instrument introduced into and pressed downward in said slot and while so. held moved longitudinally through said slot so as to realign the blade vedge particles: of such cutting instrument without abrading and removing said particles from said edge.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 381,327 4/88 ,Brown 76--89.2 465,880 .12/91 Peer. I 1,654,649 1 1/28 Hildebrand 51-63 2,787,921 V 4/57 Blankenship 76-86 2,795,975 6/57 Stoner 7689.2

FOREIGN PATENTS 270,529 6/27' Great Britain.

385,873 1/33 Great Britain.

420,941 .12/34 Great Britain. 561,793 6/44 Great Britain.

577,064 10/44 Great Britain.

75,372 8/ 17 Switzerland.

25 GRANVILLE Y. CUSTER,'JR., Primary Examiner. 

